New guys that refuse help?

Had an interesting day at the field today.

Our home field is the largest field on the west coast here in Los Angeles and is a public field.

If you not sure which field this is, It’s commonly known as the “Basin” anyone can fly here so It attracts all sorts.

Today as our little gang (50% /40% and a 30% planes) were hanging out in the pit area one of the setup tables next to us comes a guy with a little red foam Pitts with a radio the size of my phone. OK, we say hello and he says he is a first time flyer. So, we offer our help. We ask him “if you would like us to check out your setup before you fly it lets us know” He says,” I’ve’ been flying drones for two years, I think I have it under control” We all smile and say great!

Then he asks any tips for a new flyer? Buddy of mine says “ Yea, don’t fly that plane. It’s geared towards aerobatics and is not a plane for the first timer. Start with a trainer” He says, no problem as I said I fly drones.

Now, the basin has two runways one for electric park flyer’s and one paved 400” or so runway that has an airframe minimum of 2 pounds.

His plane was well under the 2 pound minimum and should been flow in the electric area. The “Basin” is like the wild west of RC airfields anything seems to go. If you survive this field you’re ready for any other field in the USA!

Now this guy is out on the main runway with his mini Pitts and is standing out on the tarmac while jets and 40% and 50% IMAC planes are trying to fly. My buddy goes up to him for a friendly suggestion. “you might want to stand off the runway, planes are coming by and it’s a little dangerous” The guy doesn’t heed the warning. Keeps trying to take off to no avail. Crashing a few times until his Pitt’s is just trashed. Never even getting it up in the air more than a few inches.

I’m in the pits as he brings his plane back to his table. I say I have some CA and can probably get it fixed and could help you get in the air. He says Na, I’m just going to go fly my drone.
We all smile and shake our heads in disbelieve.

20 minutes later, a guy shows up at the same table with his wife/girlfriend and has some hobby king plane (Not that’s there’s anything wrong with that) and seems to ok. Except for some giant aluminum box (Never found out what was in that box).
He took off, crashed right away. As he walked back to his table he SLAMMED the plane on the table a couple of times! Really hard!

Wife in tow, walking behind him 10 paces she never looked up as they grabbed that big aluminum box. He walked to his car.
Then He took that plane and as it was raised over his head slammed it against the ground several more times!

At this point he tossed it in a trash can. Servos, esc, receiver and all! (Dam, I should of got a couple of pictures)

Why don’t people just ask for some help? No shame in it.

I’m sure you guys have been there.

No, never.
In our club no plane/nor pilot is allowed to fly unless you show or demonstrate that you don't really need some help.
Those people there are responsable of (some) bad reputation of our hobby. After that happened they went out for sure saying that RC planes are... (fill the blank).
They were also a potential risk; and due to that in my club you fly by yourself (demonstrating you can do it), or you get help, or you just sit and watch.

What you witnessed there is a full-blown entitled, millennial, meltdown. There is no respect, humbleness, or basic manners in many of these punks anymore. They are all taught they can do everything with little to no help from anyone. They are experts right out of the gate. They all win. Everybody wins, all the time. They are always right. But, when they don’t and/or aren’t .........Katy, bar the door! Here is comes! That punk should be embarrassed for his temper tantrum, but he’s not. And his girlfriend, sadly, doesn’t realize she’s not dating a man. They are pathetic and I blame the parents for withholding the correct disciplines which produce a functional adult.

JAM

we wont let anyone fly at our field without a check flight do to the location people do iam sure when no club member is there however there are guards that if you fly in the wrong area you will loose the plane drone people have tried to drop contraban into the prison

I flew at the (Sepulveda) Basin in the early 80's.
Then I moved to Orange County and flew at Mile Square (closed since): same story.
Since they are (were) both public parks, there was no way to set and enforce any significant rule.


That "know-it-all" attitude is not reserved to millennials...
We saw the same kind of stuff in the 80's, like a guy showing up with a beautiful ducted fan Byron jet. From the way he handled the equipment, it was obvious that he lacked experience. A couple of experienced jet guys offered to help; he replied "I am a jet pilot with X number of missions in Vietnam, I am not afraid of a toy!". He managed to take off, immediately stalled it and destroyed it, and left pissed off.

I’m not sure how the Basin could be considered the largest field on the west coast....but flying there has always been the Wild West show. Guys used to use screwdrivers to indicate frequencies and it was home to one of the most serious non fatal modeling accidents. Jets have gone into the golf course and turbine fires suppressed by the local fire department. The surrounding area is high dollar real estate which breeds its own arrogance. Surprising? Nope.

Mid Air Square was another. Last public field in OC.

Been there, done that, have the T-shirt.

It was even worse 10-15 years ago when new guys would show up with a 60 size glow... those could do a lot more damage than a 5oz foamy.


I remember a couple good ones:

One guy spent something like a year building a balsa prop-jet F-14. Shows up and tells us he flew years ago and just need a refresh. I was on the instructor list so I offered to check it over, and I did a maiden/test flight for him. Flew ok, but tricky to land so I suggested he come back with a trainer.

Later he comes back and flew it on his own of course and put it in a tree.


Another guy we had with one of those crappy Horizon glow P-51 "trainers" with the added on clear plastic flaps and leading edge fairings that where supposed to slow it down. Older guy (70s) with bad eyesight and he bounced form instructor to instructor for months and obviously just wasn't getting it and would not listen to any advice. I lost track of how many times he crashed and repaired before he gave up and didn't come back...


I have at least a dozen more stories like this.... sorry Moto but this is nothing the younger generation has a monopoly on - in my experience all of the stubborn ones where older, typically boomers. For that matter, most of the cranky know it all circle jerks in the club are that age (60 and up) as well.


The young kids usually show up and solo in a day (quick reflexes from video game practice) and are quicker to learn in my experience...

Forums like this should be required reading
Last month I attended a Fun Fly at a field a couple hours from home
Went to pick up a plane that I bought online from a guy
So the only thing I took to fly was one of my smaller ones
It was a little breezy (25 gusting to 30+)
I watched the locals and they seemed to be able to handle it / So I got mine together / started / and out to the field
Got up and flew for a while / It wasn't much fun
Then the LEARNING started
After I made 4 - 5 tries
One of the local guys walks up beside me and asked if I was having trouble
My reply was ( I Can't Get This *** thing on the ground )
He asked if if he could take my radio
I took the bird up a ways and handed over to him
Took him 2 tries then when he got it down
I reached over / shut the engine off / And felt like KISSING HIM
This weekend I flew the same plane at my home field in 15 - 20 MPH wind and Practiced what I watched that guy do and managed to bring my plane home in 1 piece again
Moral is
WATCH / ASK / and LEARN
It makes it more fun / And can save a LOT of MONEY

Anyone new showing up at our field, and says he can fly, will be asked to show us that he can.
He is then given a list of the (few) rules we have.

A complete newbie will be introduced to the chief instructor and will go through the wings program.

Anyone that does not/will not abide by the rules will have a polite suggestion that he is most welcome to fly....somewhere else.

oh man, this is messed up

OP,,
Gotta love the Basin,, seen that same scenario many times there over the years,,, can't help people who don't want help,, Hanging out watch the weekend carnage was part of the experience,,

Originally Posted by ml82232

Forums like this should be required reading
Last month I attended a Fun Fly at a field a couple hours from home
Went to pick up a plane that I bought online from a guy
So the only thing I took to fly was one of my smaller ones
It was a little breezy (25 gusting to 30+)
I watched the locals and they seemed to be able to handle it / So I got mine together / started / and out to the field
Got up and flew for a while / It wasn't much fun
Then the LEARNING started
After I made 4 - 5 tries
One of the local guys walks up beside me and asked if I was having trouble
My reply was ( I Can't Get This *** thing on the ground )
He asked if if he could take my radio
I took the bird up a ways and handed over to him
Took him 2 tries then when he got it down
I reached over / shut the engine off / And felt like KISSING HIM
This weekend I flew the same plane at my home field in 15 - 20 MPH wind and Practiced what I watched that guy do and managed to bring my plane home in 1 piece again
Moral is
WATCH / ASK / and LEARN
It makes it more fun / And can save a LOT of MONEY

One thing about flying ..... model or full scale and if you are a good pilot: Every time you fly, you learn something new. Flying in any form can and should humble a person to some extent.

While I've never been involved in full scale warbird flying, I have had the pleasure of sitting in with some old gray beard military pilots BS sessions. The comments are often the same there regarding new or young people to the activity. Then one of the old guys pipes up and says something like "remember, we were all there ourselves at one time". Puts it all in perspective!

Some people learn to fly RC accepting normal practices while making friends and learning new things as they go along. Some people just "go away". I can't say I miss those who just go away.

I've seen some text book cases over the years in our area as well. Or the guy that's flown a foamy plane for a short time and thinks he's a master... and is ready for a 30-50cc gas plane. That theme has destroyed more models then anything I've ever seen. Fortunately nobody has got hurt.

As I get older, I sometimes get the feeling the younger people watch and think "if that old guy can do this is can't be that hard". Thing is it's not hard at all... it just took 40yrs to be "not hard"(really not that long.. just sayin').

I've also heard people comment "you make it look easy"... well yeah, do something long enough it does get a bit easier. There's only one way to get long term experience, and it takes more then a day... some people don't get that though.

I do find those that ask for help tend to go a long way in this hobby. Those that don't ask for help last 30 seconds of 30 feet, whichever comes first.

One of the strangest things I ever saw at our local flying field (just a sod farm in those days) happened back in the late 70's. In those days, the little COX 2 channel radios were everywhere. Later, COX radios became Airtronics so people will know some of the lineage. These radios were super cheap, had two mini servos and required dry batteries. Top Flite red box warbirds were just on the scene also.

Two very strange young guys showed up at the field with what looked sorta like a P-51 and clearly they had no clue what was going on. Our short conversation informed us they had never flown RC before but they were sure they would have no problems. The TF red box Mustang was crude with poorly crafted everything ..... square like poorly shaped leading edges on the wings, half shaped blocks, etc. You get the picture. Now the good parts: They had two of the COX 2 channel radios with the intent that one guy would control two surfaces and the other would control the throttle and the remaining surface! No, you didn't read that incorrectly. Further, they had no engine experience. Add to that and I should leave this point out but it adds to the overall flavor of the story. One of the guys had some raggedy cut off jean shorts on that were little more than rags. Every time he would stoop down, his private parts would peek out a bit but it didn't seem to bother him much. By this time the several of us there were almost in tears laughing at these guys, though trying to suppress our emotions as much as possible to try to reduce any embarrassment to them as much as we could. Our field was pretty much out in the open, we had few if any rules at the time and we were done flying for the day so we just decided to sit back with a few cool ones and watch the show. After all, what damage could they do out there. Every once in awhile we would wander over and ask a question like which guy was going to control which surface, etc. Mostly the questions would just confuse them as I'm sure they were about things they had not considered before that day. Sadly the story had a less than predictable ending as they spent most of their time just trying to get the engine running and they accomplished little more than some half hearted attempts at a fast taxi. Thankfully their plane went home in once piece while we had some serious laughs at their expense. Before they left we exchanged introductions and had a serious visit with them about their needing assistance which by now they also realized was the case. This visit simply couldn't happen before their attempts at flight simply because they weren't ready to listen to anybody at that time. We never saw them again.

How 'bout this one. We had a guy show up, let's call him Nuck L. Head. Mr Head says he flies drones, has his commercial license and brings out a fleet of foamies. Says he's good, doesn't need the help. Spends his time on the runway trying to get his planes to work. Never mind that he's stopping everyone else from flying, and doesn't like to be told that he needs to be considerate.


Flash forward to he finally gets his plane up in the air and wouldn't you know it, he tries to turn left but the plane turns right and becomes a pile of foam trash. Now he is going to call Horizon Hobby and get them to replace the plane because it went right instead of left. We ask him if he did a range check to see which way the ailerons were moving. Based on his reaction, you'd have thought we asked him if he knew how to breathe. We then asked him if he tried to reverse the ailerons in his transmitter, and he thought we were speaking a foreign language.


Thankfully he didn't hurt anybody, but guys like that tend to be one and done and don't come back to the field. So long fella!